Torn
by Nushka
Summary: Set three years after the end of the book. Scipio is an adult and very happy until he discovers an orphan girl at his threshold half dead and decides to help her stand on her feet again. What dark figures from both Scipio's and the girl's past will arise? Was Scipio's choice to turn into an adult right? I am not giving the pairings away. It would ruin the fun! Rated T for language.


_A/N: I do not own _Thief Lord_. Wish I did, though. This is my first fanfiction for my favorite book, the _Thief Lord,_ by the lovely Cornelia Funke . Constructive criticism is welcome! Rated T because of language. _

The huge room of the Saint Catherine's orphanage in Milan was silent. It was late at night and everyone had gone off to sleep. Everyone? Well, maybe not everyone. The slim figure of a girl rose from her bed and crept to the bed next to her.

"Are you ready, Angelo?" she whispered to the little boy who slept on that very same bed.

Huge, frightened blue eyes answered her.

"I can't do this, Maura, I'm so sorry. I can't leave."

"But, Angelo, what about our plans? We promised each other that we would run away. _Tonight."_

"I can't!" they boy cried out. "I'm scared!"

Maura sighed and looked at Angelo affectionately. She tenderly caressed his hair and planted a kiss at his forehead. How could she make an eight year old boy run away from the only home he had ever known? It was a stupid idea in the first place.

"It's OK, Angelo, I understand. I could never force you run away with me. However, I am going to do it, you know. I am going to leave. _Now._ And you have to help me!"

The boy nodded.

"I'm so sorry I let you down." he whispered.

"No silly, _I'm sorry_."

Angelo was exactly what his name portrayed: an angel. Curly blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a sweet face. Maura loved him dearly. He was the only family she had after her parents died a year ago in that horrible fire that had burned down her entire house from which only she had survived. Maura always considered herself to be a lucky person. She had everything a teenage girl could ask: understanding parents, a nice home, an amazing best friend, a boy that possibly liked her, and she could go on and on about the things she was grateful for in her life. She was the perhaps the happiest person in Milan. But no one can be perfectly happy. The girl came up with that theory the moment she woke up in a hospital bed and she was informed that her parents had died. She was lucky that she was in the garden and she came out of the house right away, but her parents didn't have the time to do so. They were burned to death. Maura didn't like to think that, but it passed by her mind every single minute. _Did they suffer? Did they think of me at all before they died? What were their last thoughts? _she often thought.

But it was no use thinking about the past. "_You have to think about the future" _the nuns of the orphanage had said to her. _"You mustn't think about the life at the orphanage as the end of your old life but as the beginning of your new life". _Yeah, like it wasn't the same thing. And then she met Angelo, her little angel. Angelo didn't know who his parents were. His mother had abandoned him at the entrance of the orphanage. _Maybe it is actually better this way,_ Maura thought. _He didn't get to know them, so he doesn't miss them. _Angelo had spent his whole life in Saint Catherine's orphanage; however, he did notice Maura the minute she walked into the building and immediately became her loyal follower. They went everywhere together; they only parted when they were at school. They had gotten so close over this past year that everybody had forgotten they weren't blood related. He was the only person Maura confided in, and she had shared with him her biggest secret. She wanted to leave Saint Catherine's orphanage. Not that it was a horrible place where children eat only once a day and they get smacked if they ask for more. It was a real heaven for children like Maura who had lost everything. But it wasn't a heaven for Maura. She didn't hate the place; she just didn't belong here. Angelo had said that he was willing to come with her. So her little angel and she had planned carefully their escape. Now Angelo didn't want to leave. As much as it hurt her, Maura was determined to leave; with or without Angelo. She had to escape.

"Angelo, _amore, _do you remember what we said?"

Angelo nodded.

"Cause distraction." he answered simply.

"That's my boy." Maura said proudly.

"I'll miss you, Maura." whispered the boy fighting back tears.

"I'll miss you too, _amore._"

Angelo started sniffing.

"Oh, Angelo, it's no use to cry, please don't." the girl said although her own eyes were filled with tears.

The little boy hugged her tightly and Maura returned the hug.

"I love you."

Maura was shocked. She hadn't heard these words for a year. She caressed the boy's hair gently, thinking about her parents and Angelo's naiveté.

"I love you too."

"I will remember you as my sister." decided Angelo.

"That's great. I always wanted to have a little brother." Maura responded, silent tears streaming down her face. "Enough with the crying, though." she said, wiping the tears with the back of her hand. "It's time to leave. Are you ready to cause some distraction?"

"What kind of distraction?"

"I don't know. You decide. You make the distraction. Ready?"

Angelo shook his head in agreement. Maura took a deep breath.

"_Va bene,"_ she said. "I'll count to three. One… Two… Three!"

Angelo started screaming so loudly that the girl instinctively covered her ears with her hands. All the children woke up and jumped out of their beds. The smaller kids started crying, terrified from the horrible noise. A bunch of nuns entered the room with rollers in their hair. There was chaos. Everyone was panicked. Maura, as in a dream she heard Angelo's voice, among all the other voices.

"Run, Maura, _run!"_

The girl suddenly unfroze, and her mind started working. She looked around. Nobody was watching her. Quickly, she made her way to the bedroom's entrance. The door was wide open. Before she left the room she turned and gave it one last glance. Her last image of the orphanage would be kids crying hysterically and nuns yelling out of control. She suppressed a smile, and headed to the orphanage's exit. Outside it was freezing cold, but Maura didn't care. She stepped on the empty road, stood there for a moment, and then she did what Angelo had told her to do. She ran. And as she ran, the only thing she could think of was one word. _Freedom. _

_A/N: Please, let me know if you liked the start. Don't forget to review!_


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